Feed aggregator

Sicherheitenrahmen gibt vor, welche Vermögenswerte Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) als Sicherheit für Refinanzierungsgeschäfte von Banken akzeptiert – Lockerung dieses Rahmens lässt Aktienkurse der Banken steigen und senkt ihr Ausfallrisiko – Änderungen wirken aber asymmetrisch in verschiedenen ...

Les députés ont voté mardi en faveur de la proposition de loi créant un droit à l'aide à mourir, avant un vote définitif prévu à l'Assemblée le 15 juillet. La version adoptée à l'issue de cette nouvelle lecture sera a priori la copie finale : les sénateurs devraient en effet rejeter à nouveau le texte de retour au Palais du Luxembourg le 7 juillet, et les députés ne peuvent plus introduire en lecture définitive d'amendements.

A protester holds up a placard thar reads ‘Resist, don’t compromise’ at a mass march held under the slogan ‘The people are hungry, the prisons are full’ through popular neighborhoods in Tunis, Tunisia, on 16 May 2026. Credit: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/NurPhoto via AFP

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, Jul 1 2026 (IPS)

In May, Tunisian lawyer and journalist Sonia Dahmani was handed her second conviction of the year. Her latest sentence, a two-year jail term, came in reaction to her criticism of poor prison conditions. She previously received an 18-month sentence for calling out the government’s anti-migrant policies. Dahmani faces five more charges under a 2022 cybercrime law that criminalises the spreading of what it calls ‘false information’.

Dahmani is one of many victims of President Kais Saied, who continues to steer Tunisia in an ever more repressive direction. Saied won a free and fair election in 2019, but in 2021 he removed the prime minister and parliament, ruling by decree instead. The following year, he rewrote the constitution to give himself near-absolute power, approved in a low-turnout referendum held after key opposing voices had been jailed. When he won his second term in 2024, credible opponents had been criminalised and barred from running. It’s all a long way from the democracy that sprang into life after the 2011 Jasmine Revolution.

Growing criminalisation

Saied’s repression operates behind a facade of legality, with the criminal justice system serving as a tool of presidential control. In 2022, Saied sacked judges who disagreed with him and gave himself the power to control judicial appointments. Courts now do his bidding and jail opponents. At least nine staff of civil society organisations have received prison sentences so far this year.

Journalists Borhen Bssais and Mourad Zeghidi received three-and-a-half-year sentences on trumped-up money laundering and tax evasion charges in January. In 2025, 37 journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians and other dissidents were found guilty of terrorism and plotting to destabilise Tunisia. Following a mass trial, some were given decades-long jail terms. A November 2025 appeal court hearing that defendants weren’t allowed to attend upheld almost all convictions and increased some sentences.

The latest phase of the crackdown is targeting anti-racism campaigners. Since 2023, Saied has deployed the populist strategy of attacking Black African migrants to distract from the economic problems he’s failed to address. He’s repeatedly accused migrants of being responsible for crime and disorder, fuelling violence against them from security forces and the public.

Saied has branded organisations that stand up for migrants’ rights as traitors and foreign agents. Vilification prepares the ground for incarceration. In March, Saadia Mosbah, president of Mnemty, a Tunisian association that fights against racism, received a staggering eight-year sentence on bogus illicit enrichment and money laundering charges. Five of her colleagues were convicted alongside her.

Mnemty faces the threat of being closed down, part of an assault on associational freedoms that has seen dozens of other civil society organisations suspended. Hundreds more could face the same treatment. In 2024, courts ordered the closure of the Tunisian Council for Refugees. Last November, two of its leaders, Mustapha Djemali and Abderrazek Krimi, received two-year sentences for offences under a 1975 law on passports and travel documents.

No one appears to be beyond the state’s reach. In March, a judge ordered the pretrial detention of seven people on money laundering charges for their involvement in the first Global Sumud Flotilla, which last October attempted to take humanitarian aid to Gaza’s besieged population. Meanwhile being one of the organisations that won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize offered no protection for the Tunisian League for Human Rights. The group was slapped with a one-month suspension in April.

For civil society organisations, suspension marks the start of a process that can lead to dissolution. Civil society organisations also face asset freezes, lawsuits and tax investigations. The combination of criminalisation, legal harassment and top-down vilification results in a pervasive chilling effect.

Judges that don’t do Saied’s bidding are also at risk. Anas Hmedi, President of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates, has been subjected to criminal proceedings since 2022, with a summons on fresh charges issued in January.

Europe says little

Tunisians continue to protest. Hundreds marched in the capital, Tunis, on 6 June to demand media freedoms and the release of political prisoners. Protesters in May also called out Saied’s failure to address the economic crisis. But they need international support.

Last October, Saber Ben Chouchane was handed a death sentence for criticising Saied on Facebook. Authorities interpreted his posts as constituting crimes of attempting to change the form of government, insulting the president and spreading false information. But this time the repression backfired. The severity of the sentence caused such an international outcry that Saied was forced to pardon and release him. This shows that international criticism can make a difference.

The European Parliament spoke up last November, passing a resolution calling for the release of political prisoners and the repeal of the false information provisions. But such gestures have limits, as shown by Saied’s dismissal of the resolution as ‘blatant interference’.

Resistance to autocratisation takes more than words, but the EU isn’t acting. It’s in a weak position towards Saied because it pays the Tunisian government to help prevent migrants crossing into Europe, and in April 2025, it classified Tunisia as a safe country of origin. This means it believes migrants can be deported there on the basis that they won’t be at risk of persecution, a claim that rings hollow for the many from civil society now in jail.

EU policies have contributed to the rising number of migrants in Tunisia, since people can make it there but no further. This makes them a ready target for Saied’s scapegoating. The EU must acknowledge its responsibility and change course. It must recognise that migrants’ rights in Tunisia aren’t being protected and that, in the current situation, only civil society can do that. In its dealings with Tunisia, it must insist that civil society freedoms are respected and people are free both to defend migrants’ rights and criticise the government’s decisions. Continuing silence will make it complicit in the consolidation of a dictatorship.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

  

 

RÉCIT - Le président de la République n’a jamais réussi à développer une ligne qui se démarquait de celle prônée par les Écologistes.

Réunis ce mardi soir en Conseil national, les socialistes n’ont pas réussi à s’accorder sur une solution commune pour désigner leur champion, renvoyant la décision à un vote des militants prévu le 9 juillet.

Holtai Gábor Itt érzem magam otthon című első nagyjátékfilmje pszichológiai thriller, egyben erős társadalomkritika. Az abuzív, manipulatív egyéniségek vagy politikai rendszerek jellemzőit is felmutatja, miközben egy izgalmas elrablás-történetet kínál. Az Itt érzem magam otthon péntektől látható a romániai mozikban. A Kontűrben Holtai Gábor rendezővel beszélgetett Gergely Zsuzsa.

Articolul A Papának mindig igaza van – <i>Itt érzem magam otthon</i> apare prima dată în Kolozsvári Rádió Románia.

The Amnesty report adds to evidence of atrocities in el-Fasher, which the UN says bore the hallmarks of genocide.

La RDC affronte l’Angleterre ce mercredi 1er juillet 2026 à 17h00, heure de Kinshasa (18h00 dans les régions Est et centre-sud du pays), dans une rencontre à élimination directe comptant pour le seizième de finale de la Coupe du monde, qui promet intensité et suspense.

L’archevêque métropolitain de Lubumbashi, Monseigneur Fulgence Muteba, prône la cohésion et le vivre ensemble. Il soutient aussi un dialogue inclusif qui, selon lui, est incontournable pour construire une paix durable en RDC.   Il l’a affirmé mardi 30 juin 2026 au cours de son homélie à la Cathédrale Saint Pierre et Paul de Lubumbashi, à l’occasion de la célébration du 66ième anniversaire de l’indépendance de la RDC.

La Fraternité sacerdotale Saint-Pie X (FSSPX), communauté catholique traditionaliste, ordonne en Suisse, ce mercredi 1er juillet 2026, quatre évêques sans le mandat du pape Léon XIV. Des consécrations jugées illicites par Rome, qui n'aura pourtant pas ménagé ses efforts pour maintenir le dialogue et préserver l'unité de l'Église. Une nouvelle rupture, 38 ans après les ordinations qui avaient conduit au schisme de 1988.

Tehran, Iran before the conflict began. Credit: Unsplash/Mohammad Takhsh

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 1 2026 (IPS)

The on-again, off-again US-Iran peace negotiations, which have been disparaged by Israeli leaders, have resulted in a rare rift between the US and Israel, a Middle East ally which has had America’s unwavering “iron clad” support since its creation in 1948.

The cracks were visible – all the way from Tel Aviv to Washington DC. But is this for real or just a passing family squabble?

US Vice President J.D. Vance, who has been leading the negotiations in Geneva, lambasted the Israelis last week for their very personal attack on President Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” he said, speaking to reporters at the White House.

Vance said ” two thirds of the weapons that protected Israel were American-made and paid for by US tax dollars.”

“If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that i have anywhere left in the entire world,” he warned.

Dr Ramzy Baroud, Palestinian author and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, told Inter Press Service “while Vice President J.D. Vance’s comments may suggest that there is some divergence between the United States and Israel, we should be cautious not to read too much into them or assume that they signal a fundamental shift in US policy”.

First, this is not the first time that criticism of Israel has emerged from a US administration, even from officials widely regarded as strong supporters of Israel, he pointed out. Similar disagreements have surfaced before without leading to any meaningful change in American policy.

Second, there have been credible reports indicating that, during the Biden administration, the appearance of tension between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu was often overstated and did not reflect the reality of continued US support for the genocide in Gaza.

Despite public disagreements, American military, financial, and diplomatic backing remained largely unchanged, he said.

Similarly, recent attempts to portray a rift between President Trump and Netanyahu—whether genuine or exaggerated—have so far had little impact on US support for Israel.

In fact, only days after Vice President Vance’s remarks, the United States carried out another strike against Iran, in line with objectives long advocated by the Netanyahu government, said Dr Baroud.

At the same time, Washington is actively advancing a broader scheme in Lebanon aimed at achieving politically what Israel failed to achieve militarily: weakening the Resistance, restructuring Lebanon’s political and security landscape in Israel’s favor, all while continuing to ignore the ongoing genocide in Gaza, declared Dr Baroud..

Meanwhile, according to a Fact Sheet from the US State Department “steadfast support for Israel’s security has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy for every U.S. Administration since the presidency of Harry S. Truman”.

“Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the United States has provided Israel with over $130 billion in bilateral assistance focused on addressing new and complex security threats, bridging Israel’s capability gaps through security assistance and cooperation, increasing interoperability through joint exercises, and helping Israel maintain its Qualitative Military Edge (QME).”

This assistance has helped transform the Israel Defense Forces into one of the world’s most capable, effective militaries and turned the Israeli military industry and technology sector into one of the largest exporters of military capabilities worldwide.

Since 1983, the United States and Israel have met regularly via the Joint Political-Military Group (JPMG) to promote shared policies, address common threats and concerns, and identify new areas for security cooperation.

The 48th JPMG, held in October 2022 reaffirmed the ironclad strategic partnership between the United States and Israel, underscoring a mutual commitment to advance collaboration in support of regional security and reinforce the historic achievements of recent normalization under the Abraham Accords.

Israel is the leading global recipient of Title 22 U.S. security assistance under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. This has been formalized by a 10-year (2019-2028) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Consistent with the MOU, the United States annually provides $3.3 billion in FMF and $500 million for cooperative programs for missile defense.

Since Elaborating further, FY 2009, the United States has provided Israel with $3.4 billion in funding for missile defense, including $1.3 billion for Iron Dome support starting in FY 2011. Through FMF, the United States provides Israel with access to some of the most advanced military equipment in the world, including the F-35 Lightning.

Israel is also eligible for Cash Flow Financing and is authorized to use its annual FMF allocation to procure defense articles, services, and training through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, Direct Commercial Contract agreements – which are FMF-funded Direct Commercial Sales procurements – and through Off Shore Procurement (OSP). Via OSP the current MOU allows Israel to spend a portion of its FMF on Israeli-origin rather than U.S.-origin defense articles. This was 25 percent in FY 2019 but is set to phase-out and decrease to zero in FY 2028.

Elaborating further, Dr Baroud said It is important to note any signs of disagreement between Washington and Tel Aviv. However, political rhetoric is ultimately meaningless unless it is accompanied by tangible changes on the ground.

Israel remains the largest recipient of US military and financial assistance anywhere in the world, even as it carries out the genocide in Gaza.

As long as this fundamental equation remains unchanged, any supposed disagreements or personal feuds between the two governments amount to little more than empty words, he declared.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

  

 

C'est une affaire qui défraie la chronique ces derniers jours au Cameroun. Début juin 2026, un individu s'est rendu dans les locaux de la CRTV, la télé nationale à Yaoundé, et y a déposé un pli fermé contenant un prétendu décret présidentiel portant nomination d'un vice-président de la République. Ce document, qui n'a pas été lu sur les antennes de la CRTV, revêtait, selon toute apparence, les sceaux officiels de la présidence de la République ainsi qu'une signature attribuée au chef de l'État, Paul Biya. Ce n'est que plusieurs jours plus tard que l'affaire a été révélée au grand public.

A nyolcadikosok 79 százaléka ért el legalább 5-ös átlagot az országos képességfelmérő vizsgákon – tájékoztatott a tanügyminisztérium. A vizsgára beiratkozott 148.268 nyolcadikos közül 143.251 diák vett részt mindhárom vizsgán, ami 96,6 százalékos részvételi arányt jelent. Legalább 5-ös átlagot 113.192 tanuló ért el. Hét diáknak sikerült 10-es átlaggal zárnia a képességfelmérő vizsgát. Csalás vagy csalási kísérlet […]

Articolul A képességvizsgázók 79 százaléka ért el legalább ötös átlagot apare prima dată în Kolozsvári Rádió Románia.

Revue de presse de ce mercredi 1er juillet

La revue de presse de ce mercredi matin décrypte la commémoration du 66e anniversaire de l'indépendance de la République démocratique du Congo, célébrée mardi 30 juin, sur fond de débats autour de la Constitution.

Why can’t coal-rich Indonesia keep the lights on?

Dans une lettre ouverte au président Félix Tshisekedi, mardi 30 juin 2026, le Prix Nobel de la paix Denis Mukwege dresse un bilan sévère de la gouvernance du pays depuis 2019. Il déplore notamment la crise sécuritaire persistante dans l’Est de la RDC, la gestion de l’état de siège, les choix diplomatiques du gouvernement, la réforme du secteur de la sécurité ainsi que les questions liées à la souveraineté nationale.

Le capitaine Ibrahim Traoré a annoncé, vendredi 26 juin, la rupture des relations bilatérales avec Paris. Les 2 500 ressortissants français résidant dans le pays ne pourront plus compter sur les services de l’ambassade et du consulat, qui doivent rapatrier leurs agents.

Nach den starken Erdbeben in Venezuela geht die Suche nach Überlebenden in den Trümmern weiter. Viele Bürger wollen nicht, dass staatliche Einrichtungen dabei sind, sagt Politologe Günther Maihold. Zu groß ist das Misstrauen.

"AUKUS is happening." Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles repeated this phrase no fewer than four times at the latest Defence Conference organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) on 25 June. But Marles' utterance seemed more like an attempt to [...]

London – Alvarez & Marsal poaches sports investigators from Ankura Alvarez & Marsal has poached London-based sports investigations specialists Felix Vetter [...]